January 17, 2012

 

Vietnam seafood exporters to earn progress on value-added products

 

 

Actively expanding export markets and selling more value-added products will give further export growth to Vietnam's seafood exporters.

 

Nguyen Van Ky, general director of An Giang Fisheries Import and Export JSC (Agifish) said his company's export revenue from value-added products last year rose strongly.

 

The increase is predicted to continue this year thanks to new markets, Ky noted.

 

Last year, Agifish earned US$167 billion from value-added products made from pangasius fish such as grilled chopped fish for local and foreign markets.

 

Value-added products export is still trivial as compared to the domestic market in term of volume and value, but it is expected to rise strongly, he noted.

 

Duong Ngoc Minh, vice chairman of the Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said output plays an important role in developing value-added products. The nation's existing markets like the US and Europe only import traditional fish fillet for cheaper prices instead of directly importing value-added ones, Minh noted.

 

"Value-added products have high potentials to develop. What industry players need to do is to set up distribution channels for these products in a different way from that for traditional products," Minh said.

 

He also suggested exporters aim at stable markets given huge initial investment in production.

 

Meanwhile, the value-added products made from shrimp found numerous markets outside the country. Nguyen Dinh Phi, sales director of Minh Phu Seafood said the demand for products such as shrimp sushi, tempura and ring is huge this year.

 

Phi said the demand for shrimp products has been recovering and will sharply bounce back after the Lunar New Year holiday, when importers are in the process of preparing for Easter.

 

Foreign buyers are still keen on these products despite an upsurge in the price of input materials last year, Phi said, adding the key consumers of such products are seafood restaurants in Japan, America, Europe and many other Asian nations.

 

Vietnam targets to have revenues of US$6.5 billion from seafood exports this year compared to US$6.11 billion in 2011.